SMOKEY & THE BANDIT STAR DEAD

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Smokey and the Bandit star, Grammy winner Jerry Reed dead at 71.

The singer songwriter died in Nashville from complications from emphysema, his booking agent announced.

Reed hits included "When You’re Hot, You’re Hot (When You’re Not, You’re Not)", "Amos Moses" and "The Bird".

Signed to capitol Records in 1958, Reed first gained exposure when Gene Vincent covered his "Crazy Legs."  Elvis Presley did Reed’s "Guitar Man" as well.

Reed also wrote songs  for Tom JonesDean Martin, Brenda Lee and Nat King Cole.

By the 1970s his music career faded as he began costarring with pal Burt Reynolds in a series of films starting with W.W. and the Dixie DanceKings (1974).

Not only did Reed appear in the first (and second) Smokey and the Bandit film as Cledus ‘Snowman’ Snow, he scored a Number Two hit with his song "East Bound and Down’ from the movie soundtrack.

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